Gatwick PCSO gets six years' jail for stealing cash from passengers

 
Jailed: Alexis Scott
Paul Cheston25 September 2014
WEST END FINAL

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A corrupt former police community support officer who conned air passengers into handing over cash is to have her baby girl taken from her after being jailed for six and a half years.

Alexis Scott pocketed thousands of pounds when she told travellers leaving Gatwick that they were carrying too much money and had to hand it over.

The scam was uncovered when returning passengers began asking airport officials for their money back. Scott, 39, who has two young children, has been in a mother and baby custody unit since being found guilty in July.

She sobbed and members of her family left Canterbury crown court wailing in distress as Judge James O’Mahony handed down a sentence of six and a half years for misconduct in a public office, and two and a half years each for six counts of theft, to run concurrently.

He said the size of the jail term meant the mother and daughter would be split up, adding: “I have human feelings, I am a father. If it [the sentence] is more than three years the child is going to be taken from the mother. The judicial duty doesn’t come harder.”

Police had told how Scott, of Plumstead, approached travellers as they were about to go through the departure gate at Gatwick and asked how much cash they were carrying.

She convinced some that they had more than the maximum allowed, and “confiscated” the balance, before reassuring her victims they could claim it back when they returned.

She then placed the money under her hat and headed back to the police station. Judge O’Mahony said: “This is about a PCSO using her uniform and her status to commit serious criminal offences. The implication is upon the police, the public trust and the international reputation of this country.

“People from other parts of the world find themselves being fleeced by a police officer. If that’s the impression that people leaving this country go away with, that’s a very serious matter.”

Scott was arrested in May last year. The £13,500 her victims lost has now been paid back by Sussex police.

She has been dismissed from her job and has no savings, and the judge ordered her to pay a nominal fee of £1, with the full amount to be recovered as she accumulates it. Olivia Pinkney, Deputy Chief Constable of Sussex police, said Scott had fallen woefully short of the “highest personal and professional standards”.

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